America's "Founding Fathers" such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson remain famous over 200 years after the American Revolution.
Thomas Paine, arguably one of the people most responsible for effecting the colonists' break from British rule, has stayed a dim, background figure. Yet his stirring words remain famous, especially with the rumor that Paine helped ghost-write the Declaration of Independence.
Tom Pain's Beginnings in England
As noted by historian Isaac Kramnick, Tom Pain was born on January 29, 1737, in Thetford, Norfolk. Pain's youth and young adulthood were filled with work and thought. Raised as a Quaker, Pain learned the art of stay-making from his father. Apparently making corsets to constrain women's figures also constrained young Pain's desire for liberty, and he left his hometown when he was 19.
His many adventures included a one-year marriage which left him a widower, along with more scattered jobs in corset-making, teaching, preaching, and serving as an excise officer. By the time he was 31, Pain was gaining some fame through his talent for debate. Kramnick describes Pain's time in the town of Lewes:
"He became a regular at the White Hart social club where national and parish politics were the constant topics of conversation. Contemporaries later noted what a joy it was to hear young Tom Pain take on the town officers in debate after a few beers." (page 26).
From London to the American Colonies
After arguing in a pamphlet for a raise in the salaries of excise officers, Pain was fired, and arrived in London in 1774, with another short marriage, and again without money or prospects. Here he met Benjamin Franklin, in England to present the demands of the American colonies to a suspicious Parliament. Franklin paved the way for Pain's arrival in Philadelphia, November 30, 1774.
Like Boston, Philadelphia was an intellectual center of the colonies, and Pain began writing for the Pennsylvania Magazine, arguing against slavery and for women's rights. All this practice led up to his masterpiece, written to convince American colonists that they would only have freedom and liberty if they broke ties with their "mother" country, Britain.
Common Sense, Printed on January 10, 1776 and February 14, 1776
When Englishman Tom Pain came to Philadelphia, he was 37 years old and a failure. Then, as Thomas Paine, his impassioned prose convinced Americans to break with England.
Americans at that time were still tied to Britain in so many ways. Many Americans were British, or married into British families. Many Americans were used to the monarchy, and raised to honor their king. Englishman Tom Pain believed that England was hopelessly corrupt, and that monarchy threw an economical and spiritual drag on the bright future he saw for America.
In January 1776, during which time he changed his name to Paine, he wrote a short anonymous pamphlet, Common Sense, in which he blended logic, reason, emotion, and religion, all to convince American colonists that monarchy was an outmoded form of government, and that their future lay in independence. The first part of his argument began with defining society and government, and the relation to the Garden of Eden.
Among his arguments, Paine wrote that kings are the cause of war, and that bowing before a king is a form of idol worship set in motion by the Devil to distract people from their Creator:
"In the early ages of the world… there were no kings; the consequence of which was there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion...It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry."
Paine's Common Sense Leads Americans to the Declaration of Independence
The pamphlet was wildly successful. The first printing sold out, with subsequent printings to feed the demand for Paine's writing, selling about half a million copies to 3 million Americans. Paine's compelling yet crystal-clear prose and solid arguments seemed to instantly remove all doubt from many colonists, who suddenly pressed their colonial representatives to declare independence.
On July 4, 1776, only a few months later, the Second Continental Congress presented the Declaration of Independence to Philadelphia and other colonial cities. Thus was American independence set in motion by a simple English stay-maker, whose arguments made him the American Paine.
References
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. Ed. Isaac Kramnick. London: Penguin Books, 1976. First published in January 1776 in Philadelphia. Second edition published and added to by Paine, February 14, 1776.
Teresa Knudsen - Teresa's writing appears in the British Library, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Online she has written for USA Today and E How.
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